1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cord stopper for fixing any part of a cord to an article and particularly to a cord stopper comprising a locking member capable of normally be locking engagement with a cord, and coming out of locking engagement with the cord when the locking member is pressed, and a housing member adapted to house the locking member therein and attached to the article.
2. Description of the Related Art
A cord stopper is used for binding and releasing an opening of a sleeve of a garment or an opening of a bag. A conventional cord stopper is comprised of a cylindrical female member and a male member reciprocally mounted in the cylindrical female member. The male member is normally urged by separate urging means or urging means integrally formed with the male member in the direction tending to coming out of the female member. The female member and the male member have the respective through holes. Thrusting the male member into the cylindrical female member against the resiliency of the urging means brings the holes of the male and female members into registry or registration with each other, thus permitting the cord to pass through the holes freely. Releasing the hold of the male member restores the male member, under the resiliency of the urging means, to its original position where the hole of the male member and the hole of the female member are out of registry with each other, thus bringing the cord in locking engagement with the cord stopper.
Usually, a cord whose one end is attached to a garment is inserted through such a cord stopper, which cord stopper is locked at any place adjacent to the other end of the cord in use, so that the cord stopper dangles with the cord. When the cord stopper dangles, the cord stopper is likely to touch the skin of the wearer or catch extraneous things, thus hindering the proper movement of the cord stopper. Furthermore, when the cord stopper dangles, the cord stopper is likely to touch or collide against extraneous things and be broken, so that the cord stopper loses its proper function as such.
Furthermore, the cord stopper is made of relatively rigid materials such as acetal on account of necessity of firmly locking the cord. Therefore, there is another problem that, if such a rigid cord stopper is attached to a garment and the cord stopper touches the skin directly or through the garment fabric, the cord stopper feels offensive to the skin.
In order to prevent a cord stopper from dangling, there has been proposed a method that a cord stopper is housed in a housing member sewn to a garment, as indicated in Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2005-58583.
The cord stopper shown in the publication is comprised of a cylindrical female member, a male member reciprocally mounted in the female member, and urging means for urging the male member in the direction tending to come out of the female member. The male member and the female member have through holes formed respectively therethrough. The female member has a rim formed thereon for sewing the female member to a garment.
Although the cord stopper disclosed in the publication can solve the problem that the cord stopper dangles, it still suffers from another problem. Since the male member protrudes out of the female member, the projecting part of the male member touches or catches extraneous things, and is likely to damage the wearer himself or extraneous things. Moreover, since the male member protrudes out of the female member, the cord stopper is less attractive in design or appearance.
Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide a cord stopper which is well prevented from touching or catching extraneous things, thus less likely to damage the wearer himself or extraneous things, and is attractive in appearance as well.